Two Craft Brewers in Southern Maine

Gritty Mcduff's in Freeport is an unassuming brewpub south of town on Route One. The bar overlooks the brewery and the dining room features benches and tables for larger parties and smaller tables. The menu features simple comfort foods like meatloaf, pot roast, fish and chips and macaroni and cheese. The food we ordered was excellent, especially the pot roast. I tried 2 beers...the special bitter and the cask special bitter. The cask bitter was one of the best beers I've ever tasted. It had a great creamy mouthfeel and a nice balance between malts and hops.

We have visited SeaDog Tavern in Topsham many times. It's located in a restored factory building overlooking a river and rapids. A little less casual and more expensive than Gritty's, its popular with the Bowdoin College crowd. Sampled the IPA and Irish Red Ale and both were competent and tasty, if not particularily memoriable

Taste Testing Part #1

We visited family in Maine last week and had a chance to sample some local and import brews. Stopped at the beverage store in Topsham and brought home four 22 oz. bottles:

Gritty McDuff's Scotch Ale: Dark and smooth... roasted flavor without the burnt taste that some Scotch Ales have.

Kennebec ESB: Crap... took 2 sips and dumped the rest of the bottle. Later learned the brewer went out of business. Good riddance!

Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale: Pretty much what I expected from an English brown.. smooth, on the caramel, sweet side. Low hop bitterness.

Young's Double Chocolate Stout: A dry stout, with prominent roasted barley flavor. Chocolate flavor was subtle

We also visited 2 brewpubs. Details soon

New Toys

After much research, I added two new toys to my brewing arsenal.

I've replaced my Corona mill and its tiny hopper... powered by a 3/8" electric drill with a Barley Crusher with a 7 lb. hopper. It took about five minutes to mill 12 lbs of grain with my cordless drill. Very smooth and neat... no more grain and dust flying about.... and adjusting the crush is very easy.

And I'm moving out of the kitchen... at least as soon as the snow melts.... much to the relief of SWMBO. My new baby is a Bayou Classic Banjo KAB5 Propane Cooker. 20 psi and 17" across....this thing is HUGE! Looks like you could launch the space shuttle with this sucker.

Now I just have to prepare my keggle.... subject for another post.

Catching Up

I've gotten way behind on posting so I'll be trying to catch up. The weather has kept me insanely busy... running the snowblower and shoveling walks and roofs. It looks like this is shaping up as one of the snowiest seasons on record here in Vermont.

I have a Vanilla Oatmeal Porter in the secondary and an Amarillo IPA that was brewed on Presidents' Day in the primary. I'm brewing my Vermont Brick Haus Ale today.

Amarillo IPA

14-B American IPA

Size: 5.0 gal

Efficiency: 75.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 193.66 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.058 (1.056 - 1.075)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 - 1.018)

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Color: 8.1 (6.0 - 15.0)

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Alcohol: 5.72% (5.5% - 7.5%)

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Bitterness: 59.91 (40.0 - 60.0)

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Ingredients:

8.0 lbs American 2-row

0.5 lbs American Caramel 20°L

0.5 lbs American Munich

1.5 lbs American Vienna

0.5 lbs Belgian Cara-Pils

.5 lbs Wheat Malt

1.0 oz Amarillo (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.5 oz Amarillo (10%) - added during boil, boiled 30.0 min

0.5 oz Amarillo (10%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

.5 oz Amarillo (10%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min

Notes:

1/2 oz Amarillo pellets dry-hopped in secondary
Mash at 152, batch sparge

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.29

Super Bowl

Okay... this is off-topic, but Sunday's Super Bowl was a GREAT football game.

In honor of the Giants victory I have renamed my 'Waiting for the SuperBowl Ale as

Giants SB XLII Champions Ale. I'll bottle some 6-packs before kegging to enjoy during our visit to training camp in Albany and during the 2008 season.

While waiting for kick-off, I brewed a Special Bitter on Super Bowl Sunday. I'm calling it Cheaters' Special Bitter Defeat Beer

If it isn't obvious.... I'm a life-long Giants fan.... 50 years and counting.

Sleet & Freezing Rain!

Day off!! no work today... yeah! Brewed a variation of Otter Creek Spring Mud Bock Ale, with many substitutions based on my present inventory of ingredients. WTH... looks good on paper

Spring Bock Ale

23-A Specialty Beer

Size: 5.24 gal

Efficiency: 75.0%

Attenuation: 72.0%

Calories: 188.48 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.056 (1.026 - 1.120)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (0.995 - 1.035)

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Color: 20.8 (1.0 - 50.0)

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Alcohol: 5.32% (2.5% - 14.5%)

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Bitterness: 30.37 (0.0 - 100.0)

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Ingredients:

1.0 lbs 2-Row Caramel Malt 60L

0.5 lbs 2-Row Carapils® Malt

0.5 lbs American Caramel 20°L

1.75 lbs American Victory

7.0 lbs Pilsner Malt

0.25 lbs De-Bittered Black Malt (Mout Roost 1400)

1.0 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

0.5 lbs Midwest Wheat Malt

1.0 ea Fermentis S-33 SafBrew S-33

01:02:59 Mash In - Liquor: 3.59 gal; Strike: 162.3 °F; Target: 150.0 °F

01:07:59 Sparge - Sparge: 3.47 gal sparge @ 170.0 °F, 5.72 gal collected, 5 min; Total Runoff: 5.84 gal

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.29

Sunday's Brew

A tough weekend for football fans... waiting for SB XLII.. and the big TV sports event is ice skating!!!

Enough to send a man to drink... or to brewing

Waiting for the Super Bowl Ale

14-A English IPA

Size: 5.0 gal

Efficiency: 75.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 182.35 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.055 (1.050 - 1.075)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.018)

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Color: 13.6 (8.0 - 14.0)

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Alcohol: 5.39% (5.0% - 7.5%)

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Bitterness: 41.19 (40.0 - 60.0)

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Ingredients:

0.5 lbs 2-Row Caramel Malt 60L

0.25 lbs 2-Row Carapils® Malt

2.0 lbs American Munich

1.0 lbs American Victory

2 lbs American Vienna

5 lbs Pilsner Malt

0.5 oz Galena (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

.75 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30.0 min

0.75 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

1.0 ea Danstar Nottingham

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.29

Step Mashed 140 for 15 minutes, then 152 for 45. Batch sparged.